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InSight’s main mission is to check for quakes beneath Mars’ surface, which will help us learn how our solar system was created and lay the groundwork for similar exploration of potentially habitable planets elsewhere in the universe.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — With the orange flames of its engine lighting up the foggy sky for miles around, a car-sized Mars lander rocketed into space early Saturday in a first-of-its-kind launch from California on a mission to probe beneath the surface of the Red Planet.

The nearly $1 billion Mars InSight probe blasted off shortly after 4 a.m. local time, roaring south down the coast to the delight of crowds gathered on beaches and church parking lots to watch in the pre-dawn darkness. The lander's two-year mission aims to understand what makes the Red Planet like Earth and help advance the search for new homes for our species.

"It's unbelievable. It's literally unbelievable. I just stand here in awe," said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt a few minutes before launch. Banerdt has been shepherding the project for nearly a decade, through construction and a scrubbed 2016 launch due to an equipment failure. Scientists had to wait two years until Mars and the Earth aligned again so the probe could start its approximately 200-day journey

This was NASA’s first interplanetary launch from the West Coast, a decision made in large part because Vandenberg’s launch pads are less busy than the ones at Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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In this still image taken from NASATV, the exhaust plume of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with the NASA InSight spacecraft is seen as the rocket launches on May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif.
NASA on May 5 launched its latest Mars lander, called InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for "Marsquakes" ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet. NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A handout photo made available by NASA on May 5, 2018, showing NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine watching the launch of NASA's InSight spacecraft on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket on May 5, 2018 at NASA headquarters in Washington, USA. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the 'inner space' of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. AUBREY GEMIGNANI/NASA/EPA-EFE

The Atlas 5 rocket carrying the Mars InSight probe launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, as seen from the San Gabriel Mountains more than 100 miles away, on May 5, 2018 near Los Angeles, Calif. The InSight probe is the first NASA lander designed entirely to study the deep interior structure of Mars. DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES

A handout photo made available by NASA on May 5, 2018, showing the The NASA InSight spacecraft launching onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. BILL INGALLS/NASA/EPA-EFE

Streaking along the California coast, the Mars InSight Lander heads into space on a trajectory allowing it to be seen by millions in the Los Angeles area early Saturday morning. TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY

In this image released by NASA, a heavy fog rolling in as the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with NASA's InSight spacecraft onboard awaits launch on May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. NASA counted down to the long-awaited launch of its latest Mars lander, InSight, designed to perch on the surface of the Red Planet and listen for "Marsquakes." BILL INGALLS/NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A handout photo made available by he US Air Force shows personnel inspecting NASA's Mars InSight Lander which is housed in an Astrotech cleanroom at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on April 6, 2018. The InSight lander Interior Exploration, using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission is scheduled to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force base on May 5,2018 and after a seven month journey will land on the surface of Mars to study hidden heat flow, seismic activity and the nature of the planet's core. MICHAEL PETERSON//NASA/US AIR FORCE/EPA-EFE

In this undated photo made available by NASA on March 29, 2018, engineer Joel Steinkraus uses sunlight to test the solar arrays on one of the Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The MarCOs will be the first CubeSats - a kind of modular, mini-satellite - flown into deep space. They're designed to fly along behind NASA's InSight lander on its cruise to Mars. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/AP

This illustration made available by NASA in 2018 shows the InSight lander drilling into Mars. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 5, 2018, and land on Mars six months later. NASA/AP

In this Jan. 23, 2018 photo provided by Lockheed Martin Space via NASA, technicians inspect the InSight lander during a test of the expansion of its solar arrays in Denver, Colo. Six years after last landing on Mars, NASA is sending a robotic geologist to dig deeper than ever before to take the planet's temperature. MARINA BEHABETZ/LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE/AP

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InSight’s main mission is to check for quakes beneath Mars’ surface, which will help us learn how our solar system was created and lay the groundwork for similar exploration of potentially habitable planets elsewhere in the universe. Although Earth and Mars are generally formed of the same material, scientists want to know why the two planets ended up different. In addition to science experiments, the lander also carries two tiny silicon wafers engraved with the names of 2.4 million people who signed up via a public awareness campaign.

InSight is expected to reach Mars around Thanksgiving of this year, hitting the thin Martian atmosphere at about 13,200 mph, and then slowing down through friction, a parachute, and then right before reaching the surface, with thrusters. Even if the probe reaches Mars, there’s no guarantee of success: Missions to the Red Planet have just a 40% success rate, NASA said.

"The scary part is when we get to Mars," said Tom Hoffman, the InSight project manager for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "You never know what Mars is going to throw at you."

Federal taxpayers have provided about $813 million for the lander, with another $180 million from Germany and France. JPL also funded an additional $18.5 million to test two shoebox-sized “cubesats” that can act like cellphone towers, relaying information from the lander back to Earth. Those cubesats use inexpensive off-the-shelf technology and will help monitor the lander’s descent. If all goes well, this will be the first time cubesats have been used anywhere but in Earth orbit and could lay the groundwork for their use in other space exploration as humans expand our search of the stars.

By early 2019, scientists hope InSight’s instruments will be reporting back everything from how often the planet quakes to how warm the soil is, thanks to a probe designed to burrow nearly 20 feet below ground. That probe will be “picked” off the top of the lander by a robotic arm, the first time one has been used on another planet. Color cameras will photograph the area around the lander, which was built to withstand temperatures as low as minus-148 degrees below zero. Because Mars is geologically more stable than Earth, its interior may hold answers that have been erased here at home.